LAWMEN have apprehended three people and seized some P3.8 million worth of smuggled cigarettes in an intelligence-driven anti-smuggling operation in Zamboanga del Sur, the police reported Monday, July 4, 2022.

Police Colonel Richard Verceles, operations chief of the Area Police Command-Western Mindanao, said the smuggled cigarettes were intercepted around 3 a.m. Sunday July 3, at Purok Talaba in Camanga village, Dumalinao, Zamboanga del Sur.

Verceles identified those arrested as Al Ibrahim, 35, the truck driver, and his two assistants, Nadz Ismael, 23, and Madzmur Sahipa, 19.

Verceles said the policemen, in coordination with the Bureau of Customs (BOC), conducted a checkpoint operation following information that shipment of smuggled cigarettes is set to pass Camanga, Dumalinao.

He said they intercepted a Dropside cargo truck loaded with some 109 master cases of cigarettes worth P3.8 million.

He said that the truck, its cargo and the three persons aboard were place under the temporary custody of the Dumalinao Municipal Police Station for documentation and will be later turnover to the BOC. (SunStar Zamboanga)